Good afternoon, everybody. Fantastic to be here. I’d like to acknowledge that Aboriginal people are the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I just want to make four points. Settle in, it’ll take about half an hour. I was joking. First of all, Nick McCallum. I'd like to acknowledge Nick does a great job. He's one of a band of people, Colonel Kelvin, who Brendan has gathered around him, and there's a few other like-minded souls. And, whenever Brendan and Sandra think something needs to be pushed along, Nick has always got a very open mind and journalist in the best tradition of Melbourne. He wants to see the right thing by our community. It's great to see Nick Reece here. You'll get up, son. Okay. I just want to be the first to call you the Mayor, Lord Mayor. Justine Cain, CEO of Diabetes Australia. Thank you, Diabetes Australia I'm going to talk a little bit more about it in a moment, but it's great you’re here. You'll be busy.
And Justine in your introduction, you said you've already had important conversations with 60 to 70 people. That's almost everyone in the room, or the equivalent of. And when you think about it, when we reduce it, 1.9 million Australians have diabetes and someone's diagnosed every five minutes, you realise that it is a big issue and you realise that people who live on the streets, people who live insecurely, just don’t get the same deal.
So, I'm very pleased that Diabetes Australia took up our encouragement to work with Brendan, and I'm hoping that this is a model, as you are very positively and optimistically said. I should also acknowledge Brendan and Sandra. I acknowledge Brendan. Sandra. Well done. I love Brendan. He's on a he's on billboards in my electorate. I mean, they do a great job, and this is a great building. I just want to make these points so, you know, acknowledge everyone else too. You’re beautiful people.
Diabetes, it's real. I've had family members with it. But it's treatable. There are things that can be done. And the worst thing in the world is seeing preventable conditions. You know, being the Minister for the NDIS, sometimes you get a genetic lottery. The great American poet Robert Frost, talking about the suicide of his son, he used the term the shafts of fate. And some things are unavoidable. But preventable illness is as it says, it's really on all of us to go that extra distance. And so, the fact that you're teaming up with Project 614, I think there'll be a lot of other organizations very interested. So, I'm just excited. I think it's really good, and I make at this point that, = you know, behind us, Matthew 1128 up on the wall, it really says it invites people to - this building and what happens in it is to provide support. It's to provide comfort, to provide peace. But that doesn't happen without people making that happen. So, great about the diabetes.
I'd also like to acknowledge part of the reason why I keep coming back here, other than Brendan's amazing charisma is, they do a lot of good stuff. And since I've been the Minister for Services Australia, which is a great privilege, I learned a lot about, you know, it's not the sexiest portfolio in the government, but I'm now convinced there's no thing that the government does, which is any more important than what we do at Services Australia. And what I've found out is that every year, or last year, Australians went online and dealt with Services Australia and Medicare 1.1 billion times online. That's a lot. And we have 318 offices, and we have 30,000 plus people working. Over 10 million people come and visit Service Australia offices, which is a lot. It's amazing. We just answer tens of millions of calls. And by the way, we're answering quicker than we used to, which is great. But for some people, they're not going to get on the phone. They're not going to come into the office. They're not going to be a digital native transacting. And then you what I realized is we need to go out to the people.
And that in our communities, there are people who are under-documented or undocumented. We've got people who just aren't in the Medicare system. It's not that the safety net is inadequate. They're just not in it. And that's not anybody's fault. Life has a way of, can upend endured, you know. A traumatic childhood, you just - there's no blame about this. But some people are not going to go and sit down and sit in a Centrelink office or fill in a Medicare form online. And that's where I think what Brendan's Project 614 and the Salvo’s do so well, and plenty of other places. So, it's been very exciting for me to be able to work with my agency and say, why don't we put really special people in our agency, at the homelessness organisations or frontline organisations and Nick Carbine’s here. He's done a great job, but we're now doing it in 27 different organisations around the country. This is not rocket science. This has not involved us having to go to the budget to get new money. And by the way, the Services Australia staff, they get more volunteers to come out and do the outreach than there are outreach positions. So, it reflects well on our public servants. But now we're doing it right across Australia, but we started it here and in Sydney with Bill Crews, the Reverend Bill Crews.
Now there’s 27 frontline organizations. Over 20,000 different people have now been joined into the system who were missing, and that just means that they are getting some of that support, which a lot of other people take for granted. Now we've extended them. We've got Hearing Australia, putting in checking people's hearing here. That's great. That's another agency that I work with. The National Disability Insurance Scheme, they're now working with a lot of people on the NDIS and making sure they can get access. And so that's fabulous. I mean, Project 614 has of course been doing other work, drug and alcohol work and VicPol and the Housing Vic people have also been utilising this place. But what I like about this place and working with it with the feds is, we're going to the people and that's really what it's all about.
When I announced that I was changing jobs - not retiring, changing jobs, Brendan was one of the first on the phone. I thought oh, that’s beautiful. He’s just a beautiful man, Brendan. He said, is our contract sorted for when you go? I mean, he sort of said, is it true? And he got into that conversation. And it's great that David Hazlehurst is here. Services Australia sees the value of doing the outreach work. But really, what I wanted to say in conclusion, in addition to the diabetes work done here by the Salvos, the work done by all of you to join people up is really hope. See, I love coming to this building. It's a marvellous building. You know, back in the 1880s, 1890s, people were building buildings to last. It showed the importance they attached to it. But whilst this is a beautiful building, it's what happens in the building is what makes it significant.
So, this is really a canteen of hope. It's a building of hope. The volunteers and the people who work here, they're people of hope. Hope is just the idea which says that you can have a better future and see. Hope is just the emotion that you can look forward to things, and that you have the ability, therefore, to take those steps. If we don't have hope in our lives, then we have nothing. If we don't have the idea or the expectation or the dream that things can get better, that there's a reason to get out of bed in the morning, then you live in a very dark place. And what I love about this building of hope, this operation of hope, is that it delivers that in spades.
And I love the fact that it's got - the canteen, it's rated 4.3, I think, on Google reviews, which is great. It is ironic because that's what Grossi Florentino across the road. So, it is interesting. And the ham cheese and tomato sandwiches here are probably more value for money too.
So, you've got the hope that you can get a good food, good meal here. But more importantly, all of you are people who subscribe to the view that other people are important. None of you are here because of yourselves. You are all here because you know that none of us are worth anything unless our fellow man and woman is doing okay. And that's why I was lucky to be introduced by Warren Snowdon. Warren was the father of the House. that's a term they used in parliament. Longest serving member. And he's worked on diabetes and Aboriginal communities in central Australia because he represented most of the Northern Territory. But when I think about Warren or I think about any of you who I haven't mentioned by name, I just know that the world is a very complex and disturbing place. Big elections in America. The news is full of all the things going wrong. But the people in this room, you've got hope that the place can be better. And that's what Diabetes is doing. And that's why I love today. Because this is just all about hope.
Thank you.